Sennrc's Rising
by TheOnyxHeart
Summary: New story, wrote this ages ago but as with most of my work I just don't get around to publishing this stuff; story about sword, shields, bows, bewbs and butts. Wait, what? I meant to say swords, shields, bows, magic and war, woohoo! My favourite. Enjoy.
1. Chapter 1 - Take flight

It's been a while since I've published anything, I've actually been working on my other stories and stuff, but I've been unhappy with my work and out of self-consciousness refused to publish my works; so, here I am after a very long time, feeling good about this so here goes! Please leave feedback and enjoy!

This is the tale of three champions, each of different origin.

This is Sennrc's rising.

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Akira trained her bow on the target in front of her, the sun was hanging low in the west and she'd been at the practice range since sun rise, each shot she fired split the previous arrow and by now the centre of the target was riddled with splinters and the quiver on her back was empty for the 24th time today, "Last shot..." she muttered, releasing the bowstring the arrow whistled through the air before shattering against a shield, "I hope that was your last" Rosa said, as she stood up from behind her shield, she'd jumped in front of the target to show off her strength, she began strutting towards Akira, her sword over her back and the shield rested in the grip of her left hand, she was in her armour, "You'd best get something to eat, Akira, we're heading out soon, Phoenix's orders" Rosa placed a small hamper of food down next to Akira, in the hamper she found some bread and soup, she guessed that's what the cooks had served at meal time in the camp, it normally was on a Thursday, "Oh joy, another assignment for the talented three... I really need to think of a better name for us" Onyx chuckled as he dropped down beside Akira, a cloak around him and a strap for his two daggers around his waist and throwing knives on the bandolier across his chest, as always he wore leather gear, similar to Akira's, but her gear had the crescent of the ranger on the left shoulder an eagle, whereas Onyx's sponsored the scouts' emblem a wolf head, Akira smiled and began to eat, tossing her empty quiver at Onyx, "Fill it up then, and make sure the flights are straight!" She ordered, her mouth half full as she rushed to eat the food, Onyx dashed into the shadows and left, making his way to the armoury, Rosa on the other hand sat opposite Akira and smiled, "He still has a crush on you, doesn't he?" She asked, inspecting her shield, "Nah, Onyx gave up on that pursuit after joining the resistance, I'm sure of it" Akira replied, her mind focused on the food in front of her, Rosa laughed half-heartedly and watched the shadows for Onyx's return.

A few minutes later, as Akira finished the food Onyx re-emerged from the shadows and placed the strap of the quiver over Akira's back as he made his way to a cliff edge near the range, "I'll meet you ladies at the bottom, orders are as follows: scout out Fort Ayvendale, identify high value targets and take out any warlocks that could mess with our own during the next battle, same shit as always..." as he finished relaying orders Onyx leaped off the cliff, his cloak bellowing behind him as he plummeted towards the earth beneath him, "Woo-Hoo!" he bellowed as he fell, Rosa sighed and rose from the ground opposite Akira, "We'd best get going then" she said, beckoning towards the cliff edge, she breathed in deeply and began jogging towards it, "I'm still not comfortable with this!" she called, her cheeks burning red as her jog turned into a sprint and she leapt from the cliff, heights weren't exactly Rosa's thing; Akira on the other hand, was wrapping some rope around a tree trunk, "Show offs" she muttered, the rope was attached to an arrow she'd fashioned for zip-lining, she cocked her bow and aimed into the sky, she closed her eyes and released the arrow, letting it take flight through the sky, she trusted it to land where she wanted it to land, it always did anyway.

Suddenly the rope went stiff; her arrow had collided with something sturdy and planted itself firmly, without hesitation Akira jumped towards the rope, holding her bow overhead she began to zip line into the canyon below, a smile on her face as the wind rushed against her bare skin and tossed her hair behind her, this was the life she wanted, she knew it; Akira began to close her eyes, enjoying the breeze as she descended but her peaceful trance was soon lost as something raced past her, "Sleeping on the job!?" Onyx mocked, his cape billowing behind him like wings as he glided quickly towards the base of the canyon, he rushed past Akira, before circling around and allowing himself to keep pace with her, Rosa was already at the bottom of the canyon, standing in the middle of a small crater, her shield held high above her, it became visible now, that Akira's arrow had landed there, Rosa held the rope tightly, until Akira reached the ground, she let the bow go with her right hand and allowed herself to drop the small distance to the ground, rolling to soften her impact.

"Nice crater, Templar" Onyx exclaimed, landing on one knee next to the two girls, a smirk on his face; both of them glared over at him playfully, "I can't help it if the gods bestow their powers upon me" Rosa replied, smugly, "Yeah, yeah… We can't all be Templars now, can we?" He chuckled, sticking his tongue out playfully, Akira sighed at the two and pointed out towards the horizon west of them, "The sun is going down, you two need to kick it up a notch and get moving, or you'll have no chance of reaching the fort before sunrise" she claimed, checking that her quiver was secure before breaking into a jog, she headed southwest, making her way towards the destination, it was 5 leagues away, the army behind them would take 3 days to get there, but she knew that her and her companions could get there before the sun rose in the east the next day, "The sun's going down? Oh dear, I don't think our Templar will be any good to us then" Onyx mocked playfully, he took a few steps back into the shadows and muttered , "Race you" Before vanishing into the dark, nothing more than darkness, that was the way of his kind, a shadow-walker.

Rosa, the Templar sighed and began to march southeast, after her two companions, "Gods, I beg that you hold me strong… Because these two are going to do my bloody head in" she laughed and began to jog into the darkness, after her two companions, her armour clunking softly with each step, she was determined to beat them to Fort Ayvendale.

* * *

This is how it started, the tale of the three champions, the Human, the Shadow-Walker and the Templar.


	2. Chapter 2 - Hunter or Hunted

I'm comfortable with the feedback I got on the first chapter of this and I'm also a little bit excited about where I can take this story; so here you go, a second chapter, hope you all enjoy.

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The sun slowly began to disappear beyond the horizon, and darkness fell over the world around Rosa, a few feet ahead of her she could just make out the shape of Akira jogging, Akira was not a very tall girl, in fact she was quite short, so she made up for her small stature by leaping with each stride, it amused Rosa, who was much taller, taller even than Onyx, Rosa's strides were naturally larger than Akira's, but the heavy armour held her back, not that it mattered, she enjoyed the view, just a little.

"Hey, Guys, over here" Onyx's voice rang out around the two girls, it sounded like the wind was talking to them, up ahead Onyx stood next to a cluster of rocks, his outline hard to make out, but his orange eyes shining in the dim light of the moon, the two girls changed course and quickly made their way over towards him, both stopping a few feet away from him, "I'm hungry" he groaned, sliding down to the ground, his back pressed up against one of the larger rocks, "Didn't you eat before we left camp?" Akira growled at him, squatting down opposite him, her arms folded tightly across her chest, she glared into his orange eyes, she could faintly make out a smirk on his face as he sat there, both of his hand held over his stomach, "She makes a point, you should have ate before we left, but it's too late to fix past mistakes, what are we doing to do about it now?" Rosa sighed; she planted the base of her shield into the dirt and sat down near Akira, leaning back against her shield for support, the group sat in silence for a few minutes, each one thinking of a way to resolve the issue, "Well, we could hunt something?" Akira queried a slight frown on her face as she considered how hard it'd be to hunt in the dark, "Or, I could carry you?" Rosa offered, patting her right shoulder proudly, "How about one of you feeds me?" Onyx muttered, his eyes flicking between the two girls, "WHAT!?" Rosa bellowed, grabbing her sword and pointing it at Onyx's throat, "Wow! Relax, it was a joke!" Onyx exclaimed, shuffling to get away from Rosa, "You know I haven't fed off of a human for months, I won't go back to it now" he growled, crossing his arms as he stood away from the two girls, his back turned, "I'm not a monster" he sighed, sitting down again, still facing away from the girls, "Okay, how about you two stop fighting and I just go hunt something, there's probably rabbits nearby these rocks" Akira interrupted, moving her gaze from left to right, ensuring that the outlines of her two companions didn't move against one another, "You'd better do that then, because I'm not carrying that, thing" Rosa spat bitterly, folding her arms over with her sword lying next to her, ready to grab at any time. "Right, I'll do that then" Akira sighed, she hopped up and stretched out her legs, "I was tired of squatting anyway" she continued, before jogging off into the darkness, bow in hand.

A few minutes of silence, bar Onyx's stomach growling and his groans of discomfort, had passed between Onyx and Rosa, and Akira still hadn't returned with anything for Onyx to eat, "If we lose her, it's your fault" Rosa muttered softly, "I heard that" Onyx sighed, "You were meant to" Rosa continued, "It's true, too, you could have ate back at camp, or you could have gone hunting on your own, you know you could have!" Rosa slowly began to raise her voice, "You're a beast, it's in your blood, and hunting is a natural ability for you, as is killing! Surely remembering to eat isn't too hard for you? And need I remind you that despite everything you've done, she forgave you?" Rosa was shouting now, a snarl on her face and her finger pointed out towards Onyx, who still had his back turned; but he was slowly standing up, "Shut up" he whispered, "What did you say to me?" Rosa growled, standing also, her sword in hand, "I said shut up" he growled under his breath, "Oh, fuck you!" Rosa sprang towards Onyx, "I SAID SHUT UP!" he turned and grabbed Rosa's sword by the blade, "The sun is down, Templar, the darkness is my realm, and I know when something is wrong in it, and right now, I don't feel Akira's heartbeat. So shut up." He released the blade and turned away from Rosa again, Rosa stumbled backwards and fell next to her shield "What did you say?" she whispered, feeling too weak to stand, "I said I can't feel her heartbeat" Onyx continued, "It was nearby, she got excited about something, she found something, but now it's not here, it just disappeared" he seemed uncertain, he began to pace back and forth, in silence, trying to synchronise with Akira's heartbeat, "Rosa, stop your heart beating so fast it's distracting" Onyx growled, and he continued to pace. Onyx stopped pacing, his orange eyes turned to face Rosa and a smile crept across his face, "Rosa, I might have something".

Within a few minutes Onyx and Rosa were jogging through the night, they'd found boot marks left in the dirt, they were small, probably Akira's, the pair had been following them for quite some time now, and soon, they stopped, "Well, that's the end of the tracks" Onyx sighed and began to scan the area around him, his orange eyes squinting as he tried to spot anymore tracks, "Got something" he muttered, making his way over to a nearby tree, next to the tree there were two pairs of boot tracks, and a line between them, as if something had been dragged behind the wearers, "Someone's got Akira" Onyx growled, turning to face Rosa, "If we follow these tracks, we could find any number of things, the sun is still down, you're not exactly radiating energy right now, are you ready for a fight?" he questioned, concern shaking his voice, "I can hold my own, lead the way" Rosa exclaimed, she gripped her sword tight and began to follow the outline of Onyx as he made his way after the tracks, before long the pair could see light, there was a small camp, there were only 7 tents, 2 larger than the others, they looked like a kitchen and an armoury, they also spotted what looked like an office, the rest of the tents were illuminated by the campfire they surrounded, inside there was bunks, 4 bunks in each tent by the looks of it, "What's 4 by 4 again?" Rosa whispered, "A lot of bandits" Onyx growled under his breath, reaching for his daggers, he surveyed the camp, he could make out three guards in front of the office, two in front of the armour and two in front of the kitchen, "At least I think they're bandits" he muttered, his eyes flicking from one end of the camp to the other, "Aren't there meant to be another 9?" Rosa asked, she seemed worried, "In there, I think" Onyx pointed to the kitchen, he knew that's where he wanted to be, and it's where the most noise was coming from, the flap to one of the larger tents opened up and out of it stood a tall man, with a smirk on his face and long black dreadlocks, he seemed to be dressed much better than the guards, wearing leather with metal trimmings along the edges and a chainmail underneath, he was clearly the boss, "Bring the new girl to my office, I wish to introduce her to her new life" he chuckled darkly and strode over towards the office tent, the guards stood aside and opened the tent wide for him he entered and turned on a small gas lamp on his desk, silhouettes of books and bags of gold pressed up against the tents walls and quickly caught Onyx's attention, "These aren't bandits, they're slavers" he growled, gripping his daggers tightly, his attention was drawn elsewhere, when at the far side of the camp a large cage on wheels was opened, and out of it was pulled a short, dark haired girl, "Akira…" Onyx muttered, she'd been stripped of her bow and armour, her quiver was nowhere to be seen either, probably all in the armoury, the sight sickened Onyx to his core, he quickly dashed left and began to flank around the camp, he could see that one of the guards from the office tent had opened the cage and let her out, the cage had been locked again and the guard was leading Akira back to the tent, a sword to her back, "You ready Rosa?" he turned to face her, she nodded in reply, "Good, I'm heading straight for the guards, you go to the armoury, we need to get Akira's stuff" Onyx ordered, before turning his gaze back to the guard that was leading Akira, he focused on the guards throat, he had his mark.


End file.
